| January 27, 1999 #083 | ||||||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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ABOUT THIS WEEK'S ISSUE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Mark Greer had planned to do this issue in order to give our senior
editor Tom O'Connell a short break. Unfortunately, Mark's electric
power and Internet access became uncertain with the arrival of a highly
unusual snowstorm on Monday evening, so this will be a rather
spontaneous, last minute issue- different in format than usual. The
feature is a discussion of the significance of last week's arrest of
Libertarian Gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby. | ||||||||||||||||||
In place of the usual comments on 17 or so excerpted drug news and
opinion pieces, we'll print the full text of several recently published
LTEs. | ||||||||||||||||||
FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Significance of the Kubbys' Arrest | ||||||||||||||||||
Without question, Steve and Michele Kubbys' arrest at their Lake Tahoe home was the most significant news event last week. The Kubby's had known for six months that they were under surveillance; throughout his campaign for governor on the Libertarian ticket, Steve made no secret of his advocacy for medical cannabis, nor of his own use. Their arrest came on the heels of another, less publicized arrest, in San Francisco, of Richard Evans- also a high-profile medical marijuana user and advocate. When taken together and considered in detail, these arrests suggest a pattern of police harassment of otherwise law-abiding citizens for continuing to advocate medical marijuana, a pattern occurring despite recent assurances from newly-elected AG Bill Lockyer that he wants Proposition 215 to work as voters intended. | ||||||||||||||||||
It didn't surprise when local officials, highly supportive of marijuana
prohibition, went after distributors of medical marijuana before
November 1998. After all, AG Dan Lungren, Governor Pete Wilson, and
Drug Czar McCaffrey (despite empty promises to "leave to it science")
were openly hostile to the idea; Lungren's office had initiated a
series of successful legal actions to narrowly restrict the activities
of buyers' clubs. The rulings he obtained allowed maximum local
enforcement of those restrictions and culminated in several felony
trials and convictions of distributors. Finally, a delayed federal
court challenge had all but shut down the few surviving clubs by
November 1998. As a result of this feverish combined attack on
Proposition 215, California patients unable to grow cannabis had to
obtain it from the criminal market. Either way, they were fair game for
arrest, just as before passage of the initiative. | ||||||||||||||||||
This should have changed after November, 1998; Lungren was defeated in
his bid for governor and Stirling, his hard-line designated successor
as AG lost by a wide margin to medical marijuana supporter Bill
Lockyer; in the background, several other state initiatives had passed
handsomely. Nevertheless, there were signs that local California
officials wouldn't accept change readily: the high-profile felony
prosecutions of distributors Peter Baez in San Jose and Marvin Chavez
in Orange County continued as if nothing had happened; Chavez was
convicted and awaits sentencing on Jan 29th; Baez' trial on multiple
felony charges continues. | ||||||||||||||||||
Both cases betray extreme police and prosecutorial hostility for the
accused; they involved police "stings," with planted "patients" using
forged doctor recommendations. They also involve disputed police access
to patient records, maximum charges and (in Chavez' case), a blatantly
unfair attempt to prevent the jury from even hearing about medical
marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||||
Meanwhile, Lockyer had made several well-publicized statements
supporting the concept of medical marijuana; however, he cautioned its
supporters not to expect miracles and cited continued federal hostility
as a problem. The ink on these assurances was hardly dry when Evans and
the Kubby's were arrested. Although there is no suggestion that the two
are linked by anything more than common police motivation, the
similarities are chilling: they both involved long preparation, lavish
use of resources, obvious specific targeting of medical marijuana
advocates, and use of numerous police personnel to make sudden arrests;
both sought maximum humiliation and discomfort for those arrested, and
finally, both sought excessive bail. | ||||||||||||||||||
These cases represent a clear challenge to the new AG. A large, well
informed activist community in California will be following
developments carefully, not only in terms of what happens, but in terms
of how fairly and completely they are covered in the media. There is
little question that local law enforcement has become used to the "pot
bust" as a source of revenue and power, just as the incarceration
industry has thrived on a steady stream of marijuana "felons;" their
implacable resistance to the idea of medical marijuana reveals their
motive, which is clearly not protection of "kids, " but of turf and
income. | ||||||||||||||||||
These events have national implications; it was no accident that
California, long the birthplace of new national trends, passed the
first medical marijuana initiative. Police in states with their own
newly passed initiatives will take their lead from events here. So far
the Golden State has not proven a very good model, unless you are
against patients and all for cops and prisons. | ||||||||||||||||||
Tom O'Connell | ||||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Three wire services and multiple California newspapers carried the
story of the Kubby's arrest; the Orange County Register was the first
to weigh in with a strong editorial denunciation, one which also
offered an opinion on what the AG should be doing. | ||||||||||||||||||
What the AG proposes to do is covered in the last item: exactly
nothing. One wonders at his mental gymnastics: "I didn't campaign for
this measure, therefore I don't have to restrain sheriffs and
prosecutors who oppose it, even when they flout laws I'm charged with
upholding." | ||||||||||||||||||
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(1) MEDICINAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATE, WIFE BUSTED (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
OLYMPIC VALLEY -- Gubernatorial candidate Steve Kubby, an outspoken
supporter of marijuana legalization, and his wife were arrested
Tuesday after narcotics agents found about 300 marijuana plants in
their home. | ||||||||||||||||||
Kubby, 52, a Libertarian Party candidate who received more than 65,000 votes and finished fourth in his bid for governor in November, and his wife, Michele, 32, were arrested at their Olympic Valley home following a search by a narcotics task force. | ||||||||||||||||||
Investigators found four growing rooms in the residence from which
they confiscated the plants with an estimated street value of about
$420,000. | ||||||||||||||||||
The couple were being held at the Placer County Jail in Auburn,
where they were booked on suspicion of possessing marijuana for
sale, marijuana cultivation and conspiracy. They remained jailed
Wednesday night on bail of $100,000 each. Arraignment was set for
today at Tahoe Municipal Court in Tahoe City. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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(2) OUTRAGE IN LAW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Steven Kubby, the Libertarian Party candidate for governor and an
acknowledged medical marijuana patient, and his wife Michele were
arrested Tuesday .. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
The real outrage is that Mr. Kubby was arrested at all. As Robert
Raich, an attorney who is a member of the city of Oakland's medical
marijuana working group, told us, "I can't think of anybody to whom
Prop. 215 more directly applies than Steve Kubby. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
Bill Lockyer's press representative, Hilary McLean, told us that
the attorney general's policy is usually not to intervene in local
decisions on prosecution and she knew of no plans to intervene in
Mr. Kubby's case. | ||||||||||||||||||
It should be the attorney general's job to make sure that law
enforcement officials abide by the statewide law. California
voters passed Prop. 215 more than two years ago. The proposition
itself hasn't been challenged in court and has not been overturned
-- although various law enforcement agencies have nibbled at its
edges in the way they have treated patients. | ||||||||||||||||||
It's time for law enforcement and the courts to respect that law. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(3) LOCKYER WON'T GET INVOLVED IN PROSECUTION OF GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
(01-26) 17:29 PST TAHOE CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Attorney General Bill
Lockyer won't intervene in the prosecution of the 1998 California
Libertarian candidate for governor and his wife, who are accused
of growing marijuana plants at their home. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
"Mr. Lockyer voted for Prop. 215 and supported it, but he did not
go out and campaign for the measure," press secretary Hilary
McLean said. | ||||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||||
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RECENTLY PUBLISHED LETTERS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
In planning this issue, Mark and I wanted to recall that long before the Drug News archives were established, the original purpose of MAP had been to generate LTEs in an effort to educate and influence the media on drug policy. One of the unfortunate side effects of the growth of our archives has been to crowd LTEs out of the newsletter. | ||||||||||||||||||
The following are but a few of the diverse comments on drug policy
published in the past few weeks.They reflect a steady stream of
information and opinion tending to balance the self-serving dogma
editors receive from official sources every day. This stream will have
to become a torrent before we can ever prevail. | ||||||||||||||||||
A large and ever-growing archive of the impressive array of published
LTEs resulting from the DrugSense MAP (Media Awareness Project) effort
can be reviewed and searched at: http://www.mapinc.org/lte/ The "ad
value" of this collection currently tops $1.3 million | ||||||||||||||||||
(4) MEDICAL MARIJUANA AND THE LEGAL MESS (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
It sickens me to think that the voters of this state passed Proposition
215,only to have law enforcement and our courts thwart the will of the
people and do everything possible to keep medical marijuana from those
in need["Chavez faces prison,"Opinion,Nov.20]. | ||||||||||||||||||
Instead of prosecuting those in need, it's time the law makers of this
state find a means of providing marijuana to the sick and dying instead
of turning them and the doctors into criminals. | ||||||||||||||||||
We have enough criminals without having to create a new class of
criminals. Look at how it's set up and then try to find a legal way of
getting marijuana to those in need. You can't sell or give it away; you
can't buy it legally; you can grow it with a doctor's prescription, but
if a doctor prescribes it, he/she could lose his or her license. And if
you grow too much you could face charges of cultivation with intent to
sell. | ||||||||||||||||||
In other words, those in need aren't able to get marijuana through any
legal channels and are forced to get it through the black market. This
is what the voters wanted to put and end to. So, in reality, our courts
want to keep drug dealers in business and put those in need in jail.
This isn't what I voted for when I voted in favor of Prop. 215. And,
yes, I did know what I voted for. Why vote at all, if what you vote for
won't be implemented. This just makes people more angry at an already
poor legal system. | ||||||||||||||||||
William Jameson | ||||||||||||||||||
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(5) POT LAWS AND BIG BROTHER (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
To the editor: | ||||||||||||||||||
Pot laws, right or wrong, are here to stay, but five western states
demand medicinal marijuana now. So? So, in order to keep our 32 prisons
full and correctional officers employed, this unjust prohibition will
remain. | ||||||||||||||||||
Yes, Hitler would be proud of the U.S. Remember ... control is Big
Brother's way of doing business. | ||||||||||||||||||
Bob Holmgren, Cayucos | ||||||||||||||||||
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(6) MAINE DOCTOR SHOULD LOOK AT THE FACTS OF MARIJUANA (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
To the editor: | ||||||||||||||||||
Your 1/11/99 article "Mainers likely to vote on medical use of
marijuana" included some very questionable comments about marijuana and
glaucoma by Dr. Dora Ann Mills, director of Maine's Health Bureau, that
require a response. | ||||||||||||||||||
Dr.Mills claims that the research on how much marijuana helps glaucoma
is "very weak," and "There is no medical efficacy in marijuana for
treating glaucoma." She also quotes the American Academy of
Ophthalmology as saying that although it appears marijuana can provide
possibly short-term relief of intraocular pressure from glaucoma, there
are no long-term benefits. | ||||||||||||||||||
In a chronic illness like glaucoma, all medication-derived relief is
short-term. There is no medication that will cure glaucoma. Once the
effects wear off, symptoms return. | ||||||||||||||||||
In my case, the long-term benefit is that I can still see after a
lifetime of glaucoma. I was born with glaucoma nearly 44 years ago. I
have been using marijuana medicinally to treat my glaucoma for over 25
years, ever since my doctor noted a significant reduction in my eye
pressure after I smoked marijuana. I am currently on four prescription
medications for glaucoma that, like marijuana, only provide short-term
relief. | ||||||||||||||||||
If marijuana has no medical efficacy in treating glaucoma, why does the
federal government provide three of the eight surviving patients in the
discontinued Compassionate IND Program with 300 joints per month to
treat their glaucoma? | ||||||||||||||||||
When one is faced with serious illness, shouldn't every option be
available? | ||||||||||||||||||
I suggest Dr. Smith investigate the facts instead of spouting
disinformation that can only deceive and confuse sick people already
dealing with the pain and stress of ill health. | ||||||||||||||||||
More information and studies detailing marijuana's medical efficacy can be found at on the Internet at: http://www.lindesmith.org/mmjcsdp.html . | ||||||||||||||||||
Gary Storck | ||||||||||||||||||
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(7) LOCKYER ON MEDICAL POT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Bravo for Attorney General Bill Lockyer's commitment to enforce
California's Proposition 215, and hats off to you folks for a very good
article on the matter ("Lockyer to back medical marijuana,"
Dec. 29). | ||||||||||||||||||
Former Attorney General Dan Lungren was far too heavy into "reefer
madness" and I am glad to have Lockyer replace him. Maybe now the will
of the voters will be done. | ||||||||||||||||||
Tom Hawkins Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(8) FAILED DRUG POLICIES AND THE HEROIN GLUT (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Editor -- Last week, The Chronicle reported breathlessly on the
phenomenon of increased heroin use by the "young, middle- and
upper-middle class-kids like the 21-year-old son of blues rocker Boz
Scaggs" ("Young, Rich And Strung Out," Chronicle, January 9). They also
reported that the price of heroin in the Bay Area has fallen so
dramatically that a heroin high is not much more expensive than "a
six-pack of beer." | ||||||||||||||||||
What they failed to report is that the heroin glut isn't limited to the
Bay Area, or even the United States; it's global and occurring despite
record budgets for such never-proven concepts as "drug interdiction"
and "source country control," or more recently appropriated extra
billions to Madison Avenue for "demand reduction" ads. | ||||||||||||||||||
Heroin overdose deaths have been setting records from Sydney to Glasgow
and points in between, including Vancouver. B.C., and Plano, Texas, as
well as here in San Francisco. | ||||||||||||||||||
The glut should be seen as another convincing indicator of the failure
of prohibition; instead it will be cited by demagogues in Washington as
an urgent reason for taxpayers to pour more billions down the drug war
rat-hole, for beefed-up police forces to send more poor people to
prison, and for newspapers like The Chronicle to write more uncritical
drug scare stories -- free advertising for the lucrative criminal
market created by a witless policy. | ||||||||||||||||||
TOM O'CONNELL, M.D. | ||||||||||||||||||
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(9) DRUG TESTS A WASTE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
TO THE EDITOR: | ||||||||||||||||||
Drug testing in schools is not a panacea that will halt illicit drug
use. Drug testing gives a green light to use drugs. After a test is
administered, children know it will be weeks or months until the next
one. Weekly testing of students would be extremely expensive. Instead
of spending money on drug tests, let's spend it on rehab for students
with drug problems. Why should we waste money testing the majority of
children that don't use drugs? | ||||||||||||||||||
Another reason drug testing isn't a good idea: The least dangerous drug
-- marijuana -- is the one that stays in the system the longest.
Knowing they may be tested, children might resort to more dangerous
substances that aren't detectable after a few days of use, such as
methamphetamine and heroin. Also, a "false positive" can occur on any
drug screen. Can you imagine what it would be like to be falsely
labeled a drug user? | ||||||||||||||||||
The only people who benefit from drug testing are the companies that
sell drug test kits. | ||||||||||||||||||
Alan Bryan, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas | ||||||||||||||||||
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(10) IT'S TIME TO HONESTLY REVIEW DRUG POLICY (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
I agree with almost everything Robert Whitcomb said in his Jan. 1 editorial
commentary attacking the "drug war" as a failure. | ||||||||||||||||||
As a father, attorney and elected official (Barnstable town councilor) it
has become obvious to me that, like alcohol prohibition before it, the
policy of criminalizing drug use, and | ||||||||||||||||||
I would, however, question Mr. Whitcomb's opinion that mandatory or
coercive treatment should be relied upon to wean the users of their drugs.
The history of substance abuse treatment programs | ||||||||||||||||||
It is especially cruel and indefensible to be incarcerating marijuana users
when both the National Academy of Sciences and the World Health
Organization have concluded that marijuana is one of the least dangerous
drugs, legal or otherwise, and creates less of a public health danger than
either alcohol or tobacco. | ||||||||||||||||||
It is time to honestly look at how the present drug policy, with its focus
on exaggerated rhetoric and reliance on prohibition over regulation, has
failed. Unless we are willing to objectively | ||||||||||||||||||
RICHARD D. ELRICK, Centerville | ||||||||||||||||||
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(11) Let Users Get Drugs At Corner Store | ||||||||||||||||||
Editor -- Our heart goes out to Boz and Carmella Scaggs as they try to
come to terms with the tragic death of their son, Oscar (Chronicle,
January 13). | ||||||||||||||||||
However, as grieving parents of a son who died at 19 years of age after
ingesting street heroin back in 1993, we reject completely Mr Scaggs'
understandably emotional notion of a ``plague of heroin.'` Heroin is
not a poison. Contrary to conventional wisdom and the war on drugs
propaganda, there are no known irreversible physical side-effects of
opiate drugs. | ||||||||||||||||||
As America's disastrous experiment with the prohibition of alcohol
clearly showed, it is the prohibition of various substances that
poisons users and spawns murder and mayhem in the streets, not the
substances themselves. Today, the prohibition of marijuana, heroin and
a other drugs is exerting precisely the same effects, and yet Mr Scaggs
and others cannot, or will not, see that the problems will only
diminish when we end prohibition and allow all drug users to purchase
cheap, clean drugs at the corner store. | ||||||||||||||||||
Piling tragedy upon tragedy, Boz Scaggs' ill-considered comments, together with your one-sided account of them, will increase public support for the disastrous war on drugs and thus condemn even more of our children to die. Oscar and our Peter have seemingly died in vain. | ||||||||||||||||||
ELEANOR and ALAN RANDELL Victoria, B.C. | ||||||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
Free The Kubby's web action page | ||||||||||||||||||
As we send out this edition of the Weekly a "Free The Kubby's!!!
National Call/Fax-in Day Wednesday, January 27, 1999" is under way.
DrugSense is proud to be one of the sponsors of this effort. We thank
all who have already responded. | ||||||||||||||||||
Please consider participating. All the details are at: | ||||||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||||||
SUBSCRIBING TO AND UNSUBSCRIBING FROM VARIOUS SERVICES AND LISTS | ||||||||||||||||||
Overworked list managers are constantly inundated with messages
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do it yourself. This is an indirect way to help reform as the list
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DrugSense has provided a some links and web pages that will help you
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http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm will allow quick and easy sign on for this newsletter, MAP Focus Alerts, and the DrugSense Weekly digest. | ||||||||||||||||||
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http://www.drugsense.org/lists/ provides a list of web sites and
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Most list managers go to a lot of trouble to insure that getting on or off various lists is very easy. With just a little effort you can help unburden overworked key reform personnel by just doing it yourself. | ||||||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||||
"If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the
government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those
guarantees." -- President Bill Clinton | ||||||||||||||||||
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